Time & Location: All talks will be in Gibson Hall 126-A on Thursdays at 3:30 pm unless otherwise noted. In order to have time to talk informally with the speakers, we will schedule a time we call “Tea with the speaker” that everyone is welcome to join.
Organizer: Tommaso Buvoli and SamuelPunshon-Smith
Thursday, September 25
Colloquium
Topic: Riding the neural waves: Mathematics of nonlocally coupled waves in active media
Bard Ermentrout - University of Pittsburgh (Host: Lisa Fauci)
Abstract: Recent improvements in technology have enabled neuroscientists to simultaneously record activity of many neurons at high spatial and temporal resolution. This has allowed them to discover that activity is organized into a variety of spatial patterns such as plane waves, bullseyes, and rotating waves. In this talk, I want to distinguish two different classes or wave-like activity: (1) evoked waves or "trigger waves", and (2) phase waves. In the former, the onset of activity in one area requires prior activity in a neighboring area, while in the latter, the apparent wave motion is a consequence of timing differences between areas. I will present some recent results on the role of inhibition in controlling the propagation and stability of trigger waves. Next, I will consider coupled phase equations that describe spatio-temporal activity in intrinsically oscillatory media. I will describe recent work where we are able to extract hidden waves from human cortical recordings. Finally, I will present some work showing how ongoing phase waves can promote the propagation of trigger waves in an anisotropic manner.
Location: Gibson Hall 126-A
Time: 3:30 pm
Thursday, October 30
Colloquium
Topic: TBA
Fedya Manin - University of Toronto (Host: Rafal Komendarczyk)
Abstract: TBA
Location: Gibson Hall 126-A
Time: 3:30 pm
